Victim's Wife Cries: 'How Could They Do This to Yaya?'

From a hospital bed, Monique Opher mourned her husband, who was murdered by terrorists last night.

By Adam Ross

First Publish: 10/11/2013, 10:43 AM

Monique Opher reacted with shock and pain on the murder of her husband, a former army officer, who was killed by Palestinian Authority Arabs in the early hours of Friday morning.

Colonel (reserves) Yaya (Shraya) Opher was murdered by Palestinians who broke into their home in the Jordan Valley, bludgeoning him to death with axes and iron bars. Monique was injured as she crawled to safety picking up cuts from barbed wire on the way.

"Commander of the Gaza Strip, Givati Brigades and Shaldag (air force commandos) - how did they succeed in doing this to him?" Opher's wife wept from her bed in the Beit Haemek hospital in Afula.

"Is there anyone who didn't know Yaya?" she asked, "Is there anyone who didn’t know Yaya Opher?" Monique said in tears, "An army man for many years, Commander of the Gaza Strip, Givati and Shaldag (air force commandos)."

"How were they able to do that to Yaya?" she asked, "I don't know - they took him by surprise" she cried.

"A wonderful man, a wonderful father, wonderful grandfather, there are no words," she added. "There was no one who didn't love him who didn't connect to him," Monique wept.

The Head of the Yesha Council Friday morning condemned the attack, and blamed continued negotiations with the Palestinian Authority for the rise of terrorist attacks against Israelis.